NHL Game Night: 3-19-14 Lightning at Maple Leafs

Ben Bishop[5] allowed 3 goals on 39 shots for the victory. He'll rightly regret the Kulemin deflection goal, but he closed out the game strong with 21 saves in the Third Period against a desperate Leafs team.

Much like the Vancouver game, do you see the glass as half full or half empty? Half full, the Lightning again played a strong first 35 or so minutes and built a solid 2 goal lead going into the Third Period. As an added bonus, they showed new strength on special teams with 2 PP goals in this game and the kill of an Alex Killorn[8] boarding major after knocking Paul Ranger[9] out of the game. And, oh by the way, Steven Stamkos is back with the hat trick, which will take the Lightning from good to great offensively. Glass half empty? The last 25 minutes of the game were mentally lazy hockey, and lazy minds lead to lazy legs. They looked like they were coasting, possibly to try to save energy for Ottawa. Whatever that was, it was aggravating, and it took Bishop standing on his head to preserve the win. Being outshot 22-8 in the final frame was a bad joke, and speaks to the Lightning still having problems closing out victories.

With all that said, the Lightning move up to 83 points in 69 games played. With 1 more game to go in this 10-game segment of the season, they need 2 points to hit the segment goal or 1 point to stay on the 12 points per segment pace for the season. They're also now 13 points shy of the 96 point goal I set at the start of the season with 13 games to go, meaning they could go .500 the rest of the way and hit the season target. That's a good feeling. The finish line is coming into view.

Mike Kostka[10] was +1 with 2 shots, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 19:15. He played well in front of the home town. I wasn't too happy he missed the net on a couple of wide open looks, but he was much more active offensively than against Vancouver and he had some really good chances.